Consumer Behavior and Social Responsibility

This assignment delves into the complexities of consumer behavior, examining how various factors influence purchasing decisions. Key elements include the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer perceptions, the role of advertising and product packaging in shaping buying choices, and the influence of online reviews and showrooming on retail sales. The assignment requires an in-depth understanding of consumer psychology, marketing strategies, and the evolving landscape of e-commerce.

Running head: MARKETING AND SALES
Marketing and Sales

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Project Title..................................................................................................................................3
Research background...................................................................................................................3
Research objectives......................................................................................................................4
Hypotheses/Propositions..............................................................................................................4
Importance of project...................................................................................................................4
Literature review..............................................................................................................................5
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................7
Introduction..................................................................................................................................7
Research Onion Framework.........................................................................................................7
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................8
Research approach.......................................................................................................................9
Research design............................................................................................................................9
Research type...............................................................................................................................9
Sampling......................................................................................................................................9
Data collection techniques.........................................................................................................10
Data analysis..................................................................................................................................10
Project plan....................................................................................................................................11
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Project Title
The project title is “To analyze the impact of consumer buying behavior on organizational
performance: in context of Auchan retail company, France".
Research background
In the current business scenario, companies are more concerned regarding consumer buying
behavior. It aids them to yield information regarding how customers think, feel and choose the
products and services. Each individual is a consumer and they take a decision on the basis of
different factors such as cultural, social, psychological and personal. Consumer behavior is the
study of procedure which entails by the company to assess the purchasing and disposing decision
of the customers. It is beneficial to generate positive experience among customers and also
satisfy them. Retailing is fast and vast growing industry in France. Retailers not only provide
economic benefits but also provide the societal advantages (Armstrong, et. al., 2015). It is a key
element of marketing in which marketers attain the need of potential customers and deliver the
added value for them to grow the business.
Research objectives
To explore the meaning and concept of consumer buying behavior
To identify the relationship between consumer buying behavior and organizational performance:
in context of Auchan retail company, France
To recommend the strategy to influence the consumer buying behavior towards organization: in
context of Auchan retail company, France
Research question
What are the meaning and concept of consumer buying behavior?

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What is the relationship between consumer buying behavior and organizational performance?
What are the strategies to influence the consumer buying behavior towards organization?
Hypotheses/Propositions
H0: There is no relationship between consumer buying behavior and organizational performance.
H1: There is a relationship between consumer buying behavior and organizational performance.
Importance of project
This project is beneficial for retail companies to understand the impact of consumer buying
behavior on their organizational performance. It is also beneficial for readers to understand the
relationship between consumer behavior and organizational performance. This project is also
effective for both company and readers to understand the strategies to influence the consumer
buying behavior towards organizational performance (Oliver, 2014).
Literature review
Meaning and concept of consumer buying behavior
According to Kim and Park (2013), consumer behavior is a mental procedure which is associated
with the emotion of the consumers. Under this procedure, the consumer starts to assess the
requirement of product and then discover the strategy to solve the requirement. They also take
purchasing decision by planning regarding whether they should buy or solve the needs and then
they confirm and implement the plan in their purchasing decision.
In support to this, De Medeiros et al. (2014) stated that consumer behavior is a mental procedure
that can be changed as the alteration in market, trends and environment. There are different
factors which affect the consumer buying behavior such as psychological, cultural, social and
personal factors.
Relationship between consumer buying behavior and organizational performance

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According to Horner and Swarbrooke (2016), there is a positive relationship between consumer
buying behavior and organizational performance. In this way, it is analyzed that company uses
effective marketing strategy to influence the customer towards their products as compared to
other competitors. It is also effective for a company to make a long-term relationship with
customers as they will always choose the company’s products and services.
In contrast to this, Homburg et al. (2013) evaluated that company conducts research regarding
consumer behavior to assess how, when, and where they should sell their services and goods. For
instance, if the company knows about people that they will choose the familiar brands then the
company should promote their brand through social media pages and commercial advertisement.
Along with this, company spends more time for hanging posters and Facebook and Twitter to
endorse their product as it is effective to influence the consumer buying behavior. It is effective
to improve the organizational performance.
In the view of Martins et al. (2014) demonstrated that consumer behavior enables the company to
select what products or service should be produce and deliver. After understanding the consumer
behavior, an organization can easily consider the needs that have not been considered by the
competitors. For example, if a retail company assesses that a large number of customer shop
from stores then it can introduce the online channel for them to shop the products and services.
Strategies to influence the consumer buying behavior towards organization
According to Malik et al. (2014), the company can use a different strategy to influence the
buying behavior of consumer towards the organization. In this way, the company can offer the
quality product with unique features to the customers as it would be effective to persuade the
consumer buying decision towards their products or services. It can also use competitive pricing

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strategy as compared to its competitors hence it could be effective to influence a large number of
the customer towards their products or services.
In support to this, Ali and Ahmad (2016) stated that company can use the effective promotional
strategies such as sales discount, coupon code, and free sample offers to influence the buying
behavior of consumer towards their products and services as compared to other key market
players. It can also use different integrated marketing communication tool to influence the
consumer buying behavior such as social media, advertisement, direct marketing, e-mail
marketing, indirect marketing and messaging. As a result, it would be beneficial to improve the
organizational performance.
Hollebeek et al. (2014) exhibited that company can conduct the market research to identify the
needs, wants and desires of customers and can implement it in their business process.
Consequently, it will influence the buying behavior of consumer towards their products and
increase the revenue of the company. The company should also use effective consumer
protection regulatory policy to protect the consumers as it would be beneficial to influence them
towards their products and services. It should also handle the customer grievance services after
purchasing the products as it would be beneficial to influence the consumer buying behavior
towards the organization. As a result, the company can generate more productivity.
Research methodology
Introduction
This is an essential part of research methodology which depicts certain methods like research
design, approaches, philosophies, data gathering process and research type. It is appropriate to
obtain the data to resolve the research concern. The key intention of this research is to assess the
appropriate tool to overcome the impact of consumer buying behavior of Auchan retail company,

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France in a significant way. In addition to this, the researcher will exercise different journal
articles in the research to improve the reliability of gathered facts and figures (Bolton and
Mattila, 2015). Along with this, this strategy could be effective to enhance the superiority and
reliability of research outcome.
Research Onion Framework
This framework contains different tactics like research strategies, approaches, methods that
would be implemented by a researcher to pool the facts and figures and attain the research
objectives. Along with this, the researcher will implement onion framework to generate
knowledge regarding techniques and tools of the research. This onion framework is established
by Saunder to build exact knowledge with respect to research techniques (Brodie, et. al., 2013).
Consequently, it could be beneficial to enhance the consistency of research outcome in an
effective manner.
(Source: Rapp, et. al., 2015)
This is also beneficial for a researcher as it will aid to assess techniques and tools as well as build
depth knowledge about methodology in a systematic manner. Researcher will use the onion

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framework to conduct this research (Nuttavuthisit and Thøgersen, 2017). The researcher will be
completed in below manner:
Research philosophy
Research philosophy is effective to create logical belief regarding pooling, assessing and
evaluating the facts and figures in the project. For this research, the researcher will choose the
positivism research philosophy due to generating a hypothesis. It would be beneficial to get
reliable and valid outcome about research (Öberseder, et. al., 2014).
Research approach
The research will also use the deductive approach in this project due to its relevancy with the
interpretivism philosophy. This approach is also depending on general perception and belief of
people to obtain the information regarding research issue. This approach will select to generate
the hypothesis and then accept and reject by using different theories and data analysis (Raheem,
et. al., 2014).
Research design
Mix research design will be used by a researcher with the intention of this research. This is
effective for the researcher as it incorporates the features of both qualitative and quantitative
research design. In such case, the researcher will implement the qualitative research design to
obtain theoretical data about the impact of consumer behavior on organizational performance.
Along with this, researcher will use quantitative research design to assess the responses of
respondents (Nuttavuthisit and Thøgersen, 2017).
Research type
For this research, the researcher will use explanatory research type because it would be used to
assess the cause and effect relationship between consumer behavior and organizational

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performance. In contrast to this, the researcher will not use the descriptive research because there
is no need to describe the research (Brodie, et. al., 2013). As well as, it will also not use the
exploratory research due to not new to study.
Sampling
A researcher will use probability sampling method for this research. Under this, random
sampling technique will be used by the researcher in which respondents will select on a random
basis. This sampling will be implemented as it facilitates equal opportunities to each response to
give their answers. As a result, it would be effective to declines the biases from the project.
Along with this, the researcher will select the 55 customers from different geographical areas of
France who shop the products through Auchan Retail Company (Bolton and Mattila, 2015).
Data collection techniques
The researcher will also use both primary and secondary data gathering process as it would allow
the researcher to eliminate the research problem and actual required data. In such case, secondary
data can be collected via second-hand information such as journal article, annual report, online
and offline sites, genuine websites, academic publications and government report. On the other
hand, primary data will be collected by a researcher from conducting the survey on targeted
participants as it will obtain the valid as well as reliable data about the impact of consumer
buying behavior on organizational performance (Ali, and Ahmad, 2016).
Data analysis
For analyzing the data, statistical data analysis method will be used by a researcher to measure
the pooled facts and figures and interpret it in a significant way. With the intention of data
analysis, the researcher will exercise MS-excel software to exhibit the data via bar diagram, pie

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charts, and column charts. As a result, it will allow the readers to build all-inclusive knowledge
with respect to research issue (Martins, et. al., 2014).
Project plan
The project plan is essential for the researcher to assess the time period of each activity (Malik,
et. al., 2014). A better project takes time to execute the all activities effectively to obtain feasible
results. For this project, the researcher will follow the below timeline:
Research activities that would be
performed/Weeks
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Consideration of research issue
Gathering reviews from experts
Identification of Research Background
Assessment of Literature Review
Detection of gap in literature review
and obtain survey through
questionnaire
Analysis of information and Writing of
report
Proof-Reading and Editing
Final Submission
The above time plan is significant for a researcher to attain the research objective in the
predetermined time period. Since, time plan would enable the researcher to build the knowledge

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regarding research activity completion time. It would be also beneficial for the researcher to do
research in given time structure.

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Bibliography
Ali, A., and Ahmad, I. (2016) ‘Environment-friendly products: factors that influence the green
purchase intentions of Pakistani consumers’, Pakistan Journal of Engineering, Technology and
Science, 2(1) pp. 1-5.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., and Brennan, R. (2015) Marketing: an introduction. UK:
Pearson Education.
Bolton, L. E., and Mattila, A. S. (2015) ‘How does corporate social responsibility affect
consumer response to service failure in buyer-seller relationships?’, Journal of Retailing, 91(1),
pp. 140-153.
Brodie, R. J., Ilic, A., Juric, B., and Hollebeek, L. (2013) ‘Consumer engagement in a virtual
brand community: An exploratory analysis’, Journal of Business Research, 66(1), pp. 105-114.
De Medeiros, J. F., Ribeiro, J. L. D., and Cortimiglia, M. N. (2014) ‘Success factors for
environmentally sustainable product innovation: a systematic literature review’, Journal of
Cleaner Production, 65, pp. 76-86.
Hollebeek, L. D., Glynn, M. S., and Brodie, R. J. (2014) ‘Consumer brand engagement in social
media: Conceptualization, scale development and validation’, Journal of interactive
marketing, 28(2), pp. 149-165.
Homburg, C., Stierl, M., and Bornemann, T. (2013) ‘Corporate social responsibility in business-
to-business markets: how organizational customers account for supplier corporate social
responsibility engagement’, Journal of Marketing, 77(6), pp. 54-72.
Horner, S., and Swarbrooke, J. (2016) Consumer behavior in tourism. UK: Routledge.

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Kim, S., and Park, H. (2013) ‘Effects of various characteristics of social commerce (s-
commerce) on consumers’ trust and trust performance’, International Journal of Information
Management, 33(2), pp. 318-332.
Malik, M. E., Ghafoor, M. M., and Iqbal, H. K. (2014) ‘The impact of advertisement and
consumer perception on consumer buying behavior’, International Review of Social Sciences and
Humanities, 6(2), pp. 55-64.
Martins, C., Oliveira, T., and Popovič, A. (2014) ‘Understanding the Internet banking adoption:
A unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and perceived risk
application’, International Journal of Information Management, 34(1), pp. 1-13.
Nuttavuthisit, K., and Thøgersen, J. (2017) ‘The importance of consumer trust for the emergence
of a market for green products: The case of organic food’, Journal of Business Ethics, 140(2), pp.
323-337.
Öberseder, M., Schlegelmilch, B. B., Murphy, P. E., and Gruber, V. (2014) ‘Consumers’
perceptions of corporate social responsibility: scale development and validation’, Journal of
Business Ethics, 124(1), pp. 101-115.
Oliver, R. L. (2014) Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer. UK: Routledge.
Raheem, A. R., Vishnu, P., and Ahmed, A. M. (2014) ‘Impact of product packaging on
consumer’s buying behavior’, European Journal of Scientific Research, 122(2), pp. 125-134.
Rapp, A., Baker, T. L., Bachrach, D. G., Ogilvie, J., and Beitelspacher, L. S. (2015) ‘Perceived
customer showrooming behavior and the effect on retail salesperson self-efficacy and
performance’, Journal of Retailing, 91(2), pp. 358-369.
Additional readings